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HARTFORD, Conn. — Susan Schaefer LaRose quit her sales job in May after 18 years with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., frustrated by long workweeks that frequently encroached on weekends and vacations. And then she sued.

Her lawsuit, part of a series of class-action claims filed last month against nine major drug companies, seeks tens of millions of dollars in back pay for the thousands of drug company salespeople across the country.

The lawsuits, filed in New York, California, New Jersey and Connecticut, are the latest in a series of mass tort claims seeking overtime pay from U.S. businesses in recent years. IBM Corp. last month agreed to pay $65 million to 32,000 technology workers who claimed their jobs were wrongly classified as overtime-exempt.

The pharmaceutical-company lawsuits seek overtime wages dating back two to six years, under federal and state statutes of limitations. Other companies affected are Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., AstraZeneca PLC, Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Amgen Inc., Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Bayer AG. Some of the companies deny the allegations, while others are reviewing the lawsuits before commenting.

In the case that Schaefer LaRose is part of, federal labor law allows outside sales forces to be exempt from overtime pay in recognition of the unique abilities offered by a skilled sales staff.

But within the last decade, drug companies began carefully scripting sales pitches for fear of competitors' lawsuits or scrutiny by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

"They no longer had that freedom for what the exemption was designed," said New York attorney Charles Joseph, who brought several of the lawsuits. "The job has changed, and it has changed for the worse."

Anthony DeMeis, a co-founder of the Pharmaceutical Representative Society of New York, said he doesn't know of many other jobs that offer college grads $60,000 to $80,000 a year with a free car and free cell phone. He said some work 60 hours a week but may be rewarded with bonuses.